Monday, May 18, 2015

Electron Pairing Without Superconductivity

The interesting news from last week is the publication in Nature of the confirmation of the presence of electron pairs in STO, but without superconductivity.

This is significant because this has always been a possibility, i.e. where the electrons pair up but do not form any long range order or become a condensate. This phenomenon was hinted at in the cuprate superconductors especially in the underdoped regime where experiments such as tunneling and ARPES have shown the presence of a gap, called the pseudogap, above the critical temperature Tc. Whether this pseudogap is the precursor to the electrons having long-range order and condenses below Tc, or whether these electrons are actually competing with those that do, is still a highly debated question.

My guess is that this paper will be a significant piece of information to that puzzle.